What a buzz it is to be one of 1750 MTBers willing to test themselves on what is a pretty hard day on the bike, no matter what the conditions. I truely marvell at the wide variety of riders and skills that take this one on. Yeah, yeah, there's the elite riders that train for it and finish sub 5 hours but it's also the riders that are average recreational cyclists that can spend 9 or 10 hours out there, I dips me lid to all of ya!
Yes, it wasn't as hard a slog as last year in the mud but still, well..... hard! And what a race of many parts it is, a significant bitumen climb, steep 4wd climbs, fast water rutted descents, sweeet singletrack climbs and descents, sand, just about everything except rocks I suppose.
My race started probably a bit slow (for a change) but probably too slow and lost a bit of time on the initial climbs (ya really gotta train on climbs to blitz the climbs but anyways). The pace was pretty hard from the get go and I decided to hold back and save for the true MTBing, the singletrack. Cramping is not something that usually affects me much but *#%! me, it did on Saturday, from the 35k - 60k I had to nurse the legs through but after the first transition at the 65k mark, it was game on, trying to peg back some riders I wasn't feeling too bad and the caffeine kept me pretty wired. The final 13k section climb seemed to never end and I was weary of going over the bars on the final descent as was the case last year. Not before time, I raced to the end with no idea of time or position, releived. 5hours 51mins 45secs, 71st position overall and 9th in vets catagory. I'm pretty happy with that considering I would be lucky to get 100 -150k's in for a week and certainly haven't been doing any MTB marathon stuff. (...but we've all got our excuses).
Deano Bravo cruised in, all smiles, in 388th posi overall, in a time of 7:31:00, great work bruva considering the bike has taken a distant back seat of late.
Gezza arrived in 238th posi, 6:51:23 after the start, and after throwing down the challenge last year to beat the Kellett boys, ya gunna have to get on the programme now for next years race.
As predicted, Jongers smoked it again, in 4:30:46, confirming that yes he is a robot but I hear he did put on his granny ring for the race (perhaps I should have also, doh!).
Great day, great race, I'll be back next year, well done to all fellow riders, just finishing is a considerable achievement in my books.
Great to have Mum, Dad, Becko, Sassy & Nina Jean there for support, thanks muchly it was greatly appreciated.
Holden High Country Cycle Challenge next Saturday, (it's an event and not a race you know).
Bruce and Steve run a stellar event, get on board the Buller train Saturday arvo and hit the tins on Saturday night, beer and bikes, a match made in heaven. Always love going up to ride with my cycling country cousins (fellow club members), let's just hope for weather under 30degrees.
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